


A Future

by raccodactyl



Series: Good Thing [2]
Category: Red Dead Redemption (Video Games)
Genre: Established Relationship, Feelings, Fluff, Historical Homophobia, M/M, arthur morgan is so gentle, slightly ooc dutch
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-01-20
Updated: 2019-01-20
Packaged: 2019-10-13 04:21:13
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,219
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17481068
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/raccodactyl/pseuds/raccodactyl
Summary: You're left a bit shaken up a bit after a hunting trip goes wrong. You just want the best for your Arthur.





	A Future

**Author's Note:**

> There's a bit of violence but it's not at all graphic.

It was a chilly morning up in the mountains. It may have been mid summer but it sure did not feel like it. Dutch had send you and Arthur on a hunting trip as supplies got a little low. You had stocked up on some small game but still needed something a bit bigger before you went back. A good elk would send you two home.

You and Arthur had grown to be a bit more than friends. It was something most of the gang knew about but no one dared to say anything. You two were discreet, weren’t in anyone's face. Dutch usually sent the two of you out together which you took as his own little nod of approval. Dutch was never the subtle type but with matters such as this, you appreciated his tact. 

The trip had been fairly uneventful. Arthur was a good tracker and was good for large game. You were good with a bow and an even better fisherman. This morning marked your third and final day out in the wild. 

Arthur’s rustling woke you up just before the sun rose. He rolled over, landing himself mostly on top of you, face buried into your neck and hands gently clasping at your shirt. You moved your hand to gently stroke his hair. His breathing grew a bit faster and you could tell he was starting to wake up. You gently kissed his forehead and soon enough, his bright blue eyes began to flutter open. He began to groan his usual groans and only wrapped himself more tightly around your body.

“Last day,” you whispered softly. You held him close, morning usually weren’t like this. With relatively no privacy at the camp, this wasn’t something that came often. The two of you had joked about running off and starting a little ranch together, but with Dutch being Dutch, he’d probably shoot the both of you if you thought of leaving the gang. The two of you dare to dream. 

He sat up, sitting between your legs and facing the open countryside. You followed him up, wrapping your arms around his torso and letting your head lean against his bare back. You swayed slightly, enjoying the feeling of his chest at your fingertips as the sun rose. You moved your hands to massage his shoulders and he let out a gentle moan, “What are you doing back boy?” 

“Just trying to ease you up is all.” You continued to put gentle pressure on his shoulders and down his back. After a few minutes, he turned back around to face you. His beard had grown out a bit from the normal length he kept it, his hair grown out past his ears as well. 

“You are too handsome for your own good, Morgan.”

He placed his hand on your face, thumb gently caressing your lower lip. “Now I don’t know about that,” he laughed, “but damn did I get lucky with you.”

He brought his lips to yours, hand still holding onto your chin and keeping you close. You grabbed his other hand, holding it tightly in your grasp and making sure he really felt you. 

He pulled away after a few moments, placing gentle and sporadic kisses along your mouth and jaw. “You ready to head out,” he asked in his sleepy, raspy voice. You only nodded and followed him, crawling lazily out of the tent. He stuck his hand out, helping you stand up.

The two of you got dressed, heading out into the woods to finish up your hunt. You rubbed yourselves down with cover-scent lotion and made your way out through the trees. “We should seperate,” he suggested, “we’ll cover more ground and hopefully get this done easier.”

You nodded, “remember the signal, three shots and I come running.” 

“Of course. Be careful now.”

You left a quick kiss on his lips and hopped on your horse, riding out a bit and hitching him at a tree. You grabbed your rifle, bow, and your trusty sawed off. Shotgun wasn’t good for clean hunting but it was good for emergencies. 

The trip was going smoothly, you caught a few raccoons and rabbits and were able to skin a deer, storing the pelt among many others. You were returning to your tent by the lake when you heard three quick shots just north of where you were. Quickly, you dropped everything at the tent and grabbed your most powerful weapons. “Arthur!” you called out, desperately hoping to hear something back. Your horse sprinted through the trees and headed in towards the gunshots and soon enough you could hear what sounded like a bear growling. 

Soon enough you found him, a great black bear on top of him. “Get the hell off me!” 

You jumped off your horse without stopping, quickly drawing your sawed off and shooting the bear in the side. With the bear distracted, Arthur drew his knife, quickly stabbing the beast in the neck multiple times, taking the animal down. You moved hastily to where Arthur lay, grabbing him under his arms and dragging him out from under the bear. He had a deep set of scratches on his chest, other cuts on his arms and a nick on his face, but none bleeding as bad as these. 

You put pressure on the worst of his wounds, “Y/N, shit,” he is voice cracked with pain. 

“Save your breath now, we gotta get this bleeding to stop.” 

He cringed as you had to press harder on his chest, thankfully, the bleeding stopped fairly quickly. You hopped back onto your horse, lending him a hand to get up and rode back to your little camp. Once you got to the lake, you hopped down, helping him as well. You wrapped his arm around your shoulder, walking him down to the water. You unbuttoned his shirt, sliding it off his shoulders laying him down on a grassy patch. You soaked his shirt in the water, using it to clean the blood off his face and torso. He was still groaning in pain, “we just need to get you cleaned off, then we’ll head back to camp.”

You poured whiskey out onto the cloth, “This is gonna hurt,” you said as you pressed it to the cuts. 

He yelped at the feeling and you couldn’t help but feel bad but these needed to be clean. The last thing he needed was for these injuring to get infected. You took your knife to the tattered shirt, cutting strips of it off to wrap around the cuts on his arms. You pressed on last strip to the cut on his forehead and directed him to hold it in place. You ran back to your tent, grabbing one of his looser shirts for him to throw on. 

You whistled and his horse came running; thankfully he hadn’t run too far off. You took the game you had collected and stowed it on his mustang. You took down the camp and packed it all away before returning to Arthur by the water. “Come on, old man, let’s get you home.”

You helped him get onto your horse, whistling for his to follow you back to camp. You wrapped his arms around you tightly as he leaned against your back. You didn’t ride too fast, knowing the last thing he needed was to get jostled around too much. “It’s gonna be okay,” you whispered to him. 

You arrived back at camp, quickly getting off your horse and helping him hop down. Dutch walked on over, “Mr Morgan, Mr Y/L/N, nice to see y-holy shit! What happened?” 

“God damn bear attack,” you shouted, walking Arthur back to his tent and laying him on his back. 

“Mr Pearson, unload the horses. Miss Jackson, Miss Roberts, get this man some morphine,” Dutch yelled. 

You backed off a bit, “I tended to the cuts best I could but I don’t exactly know how well I did.” 

The women crowded him, cleaning him up a bit more than you could and rubbing more alcohol on the wounds. Arthur let out curses and grumbles of pain, his eyes meeting yours between flinches. You gave him a sad smile, mouthing “it’s gonna be okay.”

After the women cleared out, Arthur sat up, patting the spot next to him for you to sit down.”I’d be dead without you,” he spoke softly.

“Now don’t start talking like that.”

“It’s true and you know it. Thank you.”

You gave a quick look around, making sure the coast was clear before kissing him. “Now we are not splitting up next time, you hear me,” you said sternly. 

“Yes sir,” he said, sounding defeated and leaning back on the wagon behind his bed. 

“How’s the pain?”

“Not all that bad with drugs the girls gave me. Chest aches a bit. Just glad we put that son of a bitch down.” 

“I’m just glad you were able to signal me. My worst fear is finding you dead somewhere, you know that.”

“Now I ain’t worth getting too worried over-”

“Stop with that talk,” you cut him off, “I care about you. And I’m not going to stop caring about you just because you talk down on yourself like that.”

“I’m sorry,” he said. He knew how much his self talk bugged you, “I just can’t help but feel like you’re too good for me.”

You just shook your head. “Arthur, you mean the world to me and have saved my ass more times than I could count. You could try to deny but you are a good man, not to mention my favorite person on this god forsaken planet. I l-” you stopped yourself, “I want this, and I want you, and I want us to be happy.” 

He just shook his head, a smile on his face, “How did I get so god damn lucky.” 

The day went on and the women continued to dote over Arthur, continually making sure that he wasn’t too sore and that his wounds were properly cleaned. He got off lightly for a bear attack, it could have been so much worse. You could have found him dead under that bear with his throat torn out, but he left with just some marks. The day floated into night, most of the gang was either in bed or getting ready to. You sat by the fire, giving Arthur a bit of space to rest when Dutch tapped your shoulder, a lantern in his other hand, “Mind if we talk, Y/N?”

“No problem, Dutch,” you said, getting up from your spot around the fire. You followed him to the edge of the woods. Bit of an unspoken rule in the camp to leave people alone when they went to that spot. Privacy was something rare when living in such close quarters with these people and all of the gang tried to be as respectful as possible. 

You took a spot on a fallen tree, Dutch set the lantern down between you and sat close, “First things first, I just wanted to thank you for patching Arthur back up. Gang would be lost without him.”

“That’s no problem.”

“Of course. Now, to put things lightly, I know you and Arthur have grown quite close. To be quite honest, I haven’t seen him anywhere near as happy as he is when you’re around him.”

You smiled to yourself, you never thought things with him were obvious as you always tried to play it cautious when showing affection with him. Dutch was always good at reading people though, unlike many other brutes in the camp. 

Dutch continued, “I just wanted to let you know that it’s okay with me. You’ve not done any wrong by me, only contributed well to this camp and our gang. You’ve really held your own and picked up the slack of some of the other folks here. Arthur’s like my son in a lot of ways and I want the best for him. You’ve been real good to him, made him real happy. I want to find something wrong with the situation, but the more I think about it, the more I really look at the two of you, I can’t do that to either of you. I know some of the others are gonna have an issue with it but you have my blessing. You let me know directly if anyone starts causing you trouble over this. I’ve got your back here, and I will take action.”

You nodded, this went better than anything could’ve hoped for. “Thank you, Dutch. I’ll be doing my very best to keep it up. I got real scared today, seeing Arthur all banged up like that.”

“I know the feeling,” he sighed. “Take the next few days off, help him get back on his feet and rest up yourself. You’ve done more than enough work as of late. You make sure Arthur gets back on his feet. He’s always reluctant to rest up but right now, he needs it. Just tend to the basic chores around camp, I don’t want either of you doing too much for a little while.”

“I really appreciate all of this, means more than you could know.”

He just nodded before picking the lantern back up, “It’s getting real late, let’s get back.”

You followed Dutch on the short walk back to camp. He shot you a knowing look, signaling to go by Arthur. You grabbed your bedroll, rolling it out under Arthur’s tent, next to his bed. You sat up a while, just looking at him. He looked peaceful as he slept, you wanted to make sure he was alright, but you didn’t want to wake him. His breathing was calm, his face relaxed. He never seemed to catch a break and with today’s incident, he’s forced to. He’s always been restless, doesn’t like it when he’s not getting work done. He liked to take it easy at the end of each day but you know he’ll be a jittery mess if he can’t at least do something. You’ll have to keep him occupied somehow. 

You faded into a light sleep, seemed every time he rolled over, you’d wake up. You didn’t sleep well and the morning came all too soon. You knew it was just your nerves getting to you, but you couldn’t help but worry about him. When he woke up it felt like a true relief. 

“Mornin’, darlin,” he greeted. 

You sat up to look at him properly, “Mornin’, doll. How are you feeling?”

“Chest is a bit tight but I’m okay. I think it’s starting to scab over a bit.”

“That’s real good. Dutch wants you to take it easy for a bit and I agree. You do need your rest.”

“It’s not all that bad, I can still-”

“I don’t want to hear it, Morgan. You push yourself and you’ll only make it worse. You rest up, you’ll heal faster, and save more time, you know that. Be smart.” 

“Fine,” he grumbled, sounding a bit defeated. 

“You deserve the time off anyway. Read a bit, draw, play a little poker. You’ve barely had a break since we got out of the Grizzlies.”

“Okay,” he nodded. “Did you really spend the whole night down there?”  
“Yeah,” you said with a laugh, “just wanted to keep a close eye on you for the night.” 

He smiled at you, “Too kind for your own good.” 

The day passed by slowly. You did the daily chores around the camp, helped out wherever you could. Arthur seemed pretty okay after a little while. You kept an eye on him for the whole day, making sure he wasn’t pushing himself and do anything stupid. He spent most of his day drawing, taking breaks to eat a bit or play dominoes with Tilly. You saw him read some stories with Jack and Abigail. Karen caught you staring at one point in the afternoon, “He is handsome, isn’t he.”

“Oh shit,” you said startled, “How long you been there, Karen?”

“Long enough to see you lose yourself,” she joked, “how are you two doing?”

“Real well,” you said with smile, “he makes me happy and I hope I do the same.” 

“By the looks of that, you surely do. Has to be a few months now since you’ve gotten together, hasn’t it?”

“Just under 4 months,” you said with pride. 

“Can I ask you something,” she said, sounding genuine. 

“Shoot.”

“You love him?”

The question took you aback. You took a few moments to think about before letting out a simple, “Yeah. Yeah, I think I do.”

“That’s real good,” she smiled, “Real good.” 

\--

Daylight faded and you soon found yourself cozying up with Arthur at his tent. Camp was dead silent apart from the crackling fire and Uncle’s horribly loud snores. You rested your head on his shoulder as you leaned against the sturdy wagon. It was a comfortable silence in the calm of night, neither of you were ready to sleep yet and it felt nice to just be with each other for a bit after a long day of not being able to do so. You traced patterns on his thigh, not looking to gain a reaction, just keeping your hands busy. 

“Had a good talk with Dutch today,” he said quietly, not wanting to disturb anyone nearby. 

“Oh yeah? What about?”

“Not too much,” he said, letting out a content sign, “mostly about you and me.”

“Really,” you asked, you were genuinely surprised. 

“Yeah. Felt good to be able to talk about us with someone instead of trying to conceal it. He brought up the future and it got me thinking, ‘bout my priorities and all that. And about what really matters to me. Y/N, I,” he stumbled over his words a bit, “I need you to know one thing, and it’s real important to me that you do.”

He sat up straight, turning his body to face you directly and taking your hands in his as those blue eyes stared right into yours. “I love you. And I need you to know that I’m not here for the short game, but for the long haul. We’ve not been together all that long but I know this is right and I will do anything to make it work. I’ve had people in the past, women mostly, and nothing ever felt quite like this. I need this to work.”

“I love you,” you stated with confidence, “We’re gonna make it work and one day, some years from now, we’re gonna get a big ranch with horses and a nice plot of land. We’re gonna make this work, cowboy. I’ve never been more sure of anything in my life.” 

He brought his hands to your face, pulling you closer to kiss him passionately. “You’re perfect,” he said between kisses. You had never felt better than it that very moment. Arthur was the love of your life, the person you had always dreamed of. “The one” you always heard people blabbering about that you never thought was real. You had a future with him and you could feel it. 

“All mine, Arthur Morgan,” you said as you pulled away. “All mine.”


End file.
